After a four-week absence earlier in the year, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson came back to salvage a 1-5 start to the year, building momentum off of a Tyler Huntley win over the Bears to continue what would become a five-game win streak that brought them up to 6-5 and first place in the AFC North. Despite the team success, there have been questions about whether or not Jackson is back to full health, and a look at his practice participation may provide clues to the answers. 
It was a hamstring injury that held Jackson out for three games. He was able to get three practices in before his Thursday night return in Miami, and he got a full week of practices in for the trip to Minnesota right after. But, following the win over the Vikings, Jackson missed the team’s first practice of the week with a knee injury before fully participating for the rest of the week before the Cleveland game. Last week, we saw Jackson sit out on Wednesday, again, this time with an ankle injury, before, again, practicing fully leading up to the matchup against the Jets.
Early Sunday morning, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that, after doing this rest pattern over the past few weeks, Baltimore was considering intentionally resting Jackson every Wednesday, in order to keep him fresh for games. True to the reporting, with the Ravens having an altered practice schedule this week due to a Thanksgiving Day assignment, Jackson sat out of Monday’s practice, per ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, and returned to the field on Tuesday, mirroring the recently adopted routine. According to Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, this absence was designated as a toe injury, after Jackson reportedly hurt the appendage at the start of the Jets game.
While Baltimore is calling it rest, reporters, opponents, and more are openly wondering if Jackson isn’t still actually dealing with something. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler was one such member of the media who speculated that, having played through knee, ankle, hamstring, and toe issues so far this year, Jackson’s performance has been limited since coming back.
In the four games Jackson’s played since returning from injury, he hasn’t rushed for more than 36 yards in a game. And after a strong passing performance at Miami (78.3 completion percentage, four touchdowns), he’s struggled to be efficient as a passer in the team’s last three victories, completing only 57.1 percent of his passes while only throwing one touchdown to two interceptions. It can’t quite be said that he doesn’t have the ability to escape from pass rushers or tuck the ball and break off a 15-yard run, because we’ve seen him do a bit of that recently, but he’s seemed to lack his trademark explosive speed making both his run and pass game suffer as a result. Jackson insists that injuries aren’t affected his play, but until he’s seen breaking off 40-yard scrambles, teams will likely have their doubts.
In other injury news for Baltimore, safety Ar’Darius Washington has started getting some pregame work in as he continues rehabilitation for his Achilles tendon. Zrebiec reports that Washington could see his practice window open soon. This would be big for a Ravens defense allowing the 12th-most passing yards in the NFL. Lining up next to All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton last year, the two helped turn a historically bad Ravens defense into a top performing unit. The Ravens traded for Alohi Gilman early this year, as rookie first-round pick Malaki Starks experienced a bit of a learning curve to start his career, and adding Washington back to the fold would give Baltimore an insanely deep four-man rotation at the backend of their secondary.
